Debt and Indebtedness: Ethics, the Environment and the Economy

From personal ‪‎finance‬ and consumer spending to ballooning national expenditures on warfare and social ‪welfare‬, debt is fundamental to the dynamics of global capitalism. This timely and broad volume, edited by Peter Y. Paik and Merry Wiesner-Hanks (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), explores the concept of indebtedness in its various senses and perspectives: philosophical, political, anthropological and literary. It observes that many views of ethics, citizenship, and governance are based on a conception of debts owed by one individual to others; that artistic and literary creativity involves the artist’s dialogue with the works of the past; and that the specter of catastrophic climate change has underscored the debt those living in the present owe to future generations.